Association for Long Term Existence and Resilience (ALTER)

ALTER (Association for Long Term Existence and Resilience) is an academic research and advocacy nonprofit based in Israel, founded by David Manheim in 2021 and officially incorporated as an Israeli nonprofit (Amutah) in 2022. The organization works to investigate, demonstrate, and foster practical ways to improve and safeguard humanity's short- and long-term future. ALTER operates across three core pillars. In research, the organization conducts in-house studies and partners with academic institutions to build the evidence base for reducing risks to humanity and fostering resilience. Key research areas include mathematical AI safety (including learning-theoretic approaches), biosecurity, pandemic preparedness, systemic risk, and the intersection of AI and biological risks. In policy, ALTER engages decision-makers through roundtables, international forums, and standards bodies to promote risk-resilient regulation. In community building, the organization convenes conferences, runs fellowship programs, and supports career development for researchers working on catastrophic risk reduction. ALTER has significant institutional affiliations, including membership in the NIST AI Safety Consortium, participation in ISO standards development for human oversight of AI systems, membership in the Pandemic Action Network, and the WHO-hosted International Pathogen Surveillance Network. The organization consults for the RAND Corporation on biorisk and AI-biosecurity intersection topics. Notable achievements include organizing the AI Safety Conference in Israel (AISIC 2022) at the Technion, launching an annual AI Safety Research Prize jointly with the Israeli Association for Artificial Intelligence, publishing peer-reviewed research in journals including AI & Society and Philosophy and Technology, successfully advocating for the Israeli Ministry of Health to commit to iodine fortification regulation for table salt, and advancing biosecurity regulation through engagement with Israel's national DURC-oversight board. The organization's research team has included Vanessa Kosoy, who led mathematical AI safety work before establishing the separate CORAL Research organization, and various fellows and contractors working on AI policy, biosecurity, and public health. David Manheim, the founder and director, holds a PhD from the RAND School of Public Policy and is a visiting lecturer at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.